Biggest disagreement is defining Amazon as a "e-retailing pure play". That is nonsense. Amazon is an INFORMATION pure play and they are agnostic about where information takes them. Professor Galloway is going against trend here.

Are we really all going to start piling in our cars and buying on our phones to ship to store? Maybe and I like his Best Buy example, but Amazon can zero out any advantage bricks and clicks brings in about a day.

As I noted in the post, we all can. There is so much SPACE out there waiting for stores we could start up a multi-point store system in a matter of days. We don't see bricks as the distinct advantage Scott does. Not by a long shot.

We see the world moving to digital goods and away from hard goods. That doesn't bode well for anyone NOT in the information business. Galloway even notes Amazon functions as a search engine as much as an e-retailer. That advantage doesn't erode fast. He needs to see my pagespread chart showing Amazon with millions of pages indexed vs. next closest competitor (Apple).

His points about mobile, search and Google feel correct. Search is changing and he gets one of the forces right - appification. Apps = search less, so appying up is a good idea. Run out and open 100 stores? Not so much, at least not unless the Renaissance Galloway preaches looks like a reality.

There are many ways Mobile First changes your process and product including:

* More likely to limit functionality (cuts down on superfluous bells and whistles).* Flatten the design.* Limit the color palette.* Change the #informationarchitecture (from long form to combined snippets).* More social.* More gamified (phones are game consoles).

What is true for car dealers is true for all #webmarketing - Mobile is HERE and we best get used to it and embrace this revolution as it picks up speed and fury.

|Nearly half of companies (46%) now have formal content marketing strategies, and 37% are considering such strategies, according to a recent survey of 217 marketing professionals by Unisphere Research and...

The great title of this scoop says it all. Everyone is creating content marketing but no one is sure how the top of the conversion funnel, those things we do like blogging and social media that drive traffic, and the bottom of the funnel, the magic land of conversions and ROI live, are connected.

There are several problems trying to connect traffic generation to ROI and conversion including:

Attribution, knowing where converting traffic came from, can be a bear. Conversion funnels can be peppered with visits; content and referring URLs What was the magic combination that actually created the conversion? Sophisticated analytics model attribution and assign some weighted value, but this is riff with bias and accurate enough (generally) to calm the riot. Some modeled attribution still beats NONE since no modeled attribution can lead to cutting off your websites proverbial nose to spite its face.

Time is part of the attribution problem. Some content lasts for a day and that are all its ever going to do. Other "evergreen" content can last for a year sending converting traffic all along. How do you know when you have short or long term content? By how it behaves and that is defining a bard door after horses are already out.

There is a missing algorithm in all of this. The magic QUANT math that can accurately connect funnel tops to bottoms. The problem is that QUANT math better be flexible and have some Artificial Intelligence-like flexibility or it isn't of much use since the web is a constantly changing sea of data, attribution and time.

We will master these complex FACTORS and find a way to better connect our funnel tops and bottoms someday soon. In the meantime bailing wire and chewing gum ROI systems will continue to rule our content marketing investments.

Have you ever wondered what the differences are between men and women when it comes to social networking? Well, one thing has been proven, and that is that

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

As an Ecommerce Director our sales were dependent on word-of-mouth advertising, the best advertising you can't buy :). Realizing that women were much more likely to generate word-of-mouth we created personas and campaigns designed to begin meme creation among women.

That last sentence sounds a lot tidier than life actually was since if my team and I could understand how to "meme create" without fail we would all be retired and living next to an ocean with expensive cars in the garage (or broke and The Story of Cancer Trust would be fully funded :).

The truth is you stumble along and do the best you can to learn faster and faster and do more and more. Our testing revealed differences between men and women in:

* Call To Action triggers.

* Language.

* Importance of reviews.

* Cause marketing.

Faith Popcorn famously said people JOIN brands they don't buy them and we saw the truth of her idea in our feminine marketing results. Now there is a study showing what we saw in our numbers. Women are more active on social networks and beginning to express their more networked profiles by buying cool gadgets (territory usually thought of as male).

The limitations of stereotypes in today's marketing are HUGE. Don't assume anything, but create different strings focused on gender differences and see what your A/B or MVT tests show. Bet you see distinct differences to.

NOTE: I write this post sitting across from a group of six women who look like they meet regularly and know each other well. For most of my men friends starting a Saturday with a long conversation with six friends is the third circle of Hell (lol).

Make no mistake: marketing automation is a nice next step in marketing with many channels unified in one platform, but to make it all run efficiently and correctly can be a daunting task. Be sure to have all departments involved lined up and aware of all the goals, challenges and possibilities before diving in.

3 Trending Haiku Decks: Gamify The Clash For The Holidays

3 Trending Haiku DecksHaiku Deck is a cool visual marketing tool we believe proves Slides are a new marketing channel. Haiku Deck isn't your father's slide deck template. Haiku Deck FORCES you to tell great stories and THINK about how to excite, lead and teach an audience even as you learn, think differently and rock a new content marketing channel.

Don't think Haiku Deck and slides are a new marketing channel? Take a look at some of these stats:

As more consumers switch to smart phones, emerging channels are gaining importance in a marketing space that SEO has dominated. For years, brands have used SEO strategy to market their products, but it has become harder to find as an increasing number of search results are returning unrelated content.

Also, according to one entrepreneur, in 2013 organic search results made up only 13 percent of screen space. The rest of the screen was dominated by "ads and jun"

Problems with SEO-lead strategy are only magnified as more consumers view content on mobile devices. For instance, vertical and native search on mobile is continually threatening traditional search. Google’s traditional search traffic had declined 3 percent by the end of 2012.

Startups Think Mobile First I got this lesson at Triangle Startup Factories Fall Showcase when more than half of the "graduating" startups were MOBILE focused almost to the exclusion of content on Google.

These startups could have cared less about organic SEO. I'm not sure I would live all the way there YET but SOT (Sign of the Times) and yet another big wake up call to Google.

It is possible via app stores and direct connection into what is rapidly becoming many people's #1 digital device - their SmartPhone - to build a substantial business and have NO top ranked keywords in Google.

All things being equal I still want content in the Big G since a traffic source as valuable as that is stupid to ignore, but the brash thinking of next gen entrepreneurs DOESN'T INCLUDE GOOGLE.

Google, for these brash mobile first entrepreneurs, doesn't enter in their field of vision. They aren't worried about winning organic SEO as much as they fear bad ratings on the app store (lol).

After spending years tweaking, cajoling and pleading organic SEO I'm ready for something new and different. SEO feels played out, not worth half the time we used to put in it and OVER.

Holiday Ecommerce TrendsFirst Holiday Ecommerce awards are in with REI.com and Williams-Sonoma winning top honors and L. L. Bean most improved from November to December.

Trends IncludeFree Shipping All Orders especially in December.

Free Shipping Out and back (returns) is also trending with several majors. Deal of the Day is trending with REI.com having the best example. Williams-Sonoma's explanation of BMSM (Buy More, Save More) is the best we've seen. Bean wins kudos for its Holiday Shopping Made Easier graphic.

Overall creative performance was lackluster this year in the 36 ecommerce websites we reviewed with the overall grade going DOWN in December.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.